Ballard East pep rally is an exciting event as time capsule is opened

Saturday

Homecoming pep rallies were the way the day started for many of Ballard’s youngest students, and one of those rallies was being held early Friday morning in Cambridge at Ballard East Elementary.

Of all the things going on during the pep rally, there was one huge highlight — the opening of a time capsule that was buried in 1993, when the school’s playground was dedicated.

According to Ballard East Principal Mike Manock, the time capsule was dug up this past summer by Dan Warg, the school custodian, as he worked to deconstruct the old playground pieces and make way for the new playground structures. Those structures were purchased at both Ballard elementary schools with funds raised by last year’s very successful Ninja Warrior Challenge. Another Ninja Warrior Challenge is underway right now, as students raise funds to take part, and those funds will be used on many new playground accessories that were introduced by PTO representatives at the Friday pep rallies.

Back to the time capsule. A special guest was on hand at Ballard East to open the white time capsule tube. Charles Sloniger, who worked in the district in several capacities — paraeducator, crossing guard and playground supervisor — was given the honor. Sloniger retired last year and lives in Cambridge with his wife, Joyce.

“Both Charles and Joyce do many things for our school, such as helping with the flowers and our memory rock for students and staff who have passed away over the years,” Manock said. “They donate much time and money to Ballard East to make our school still have that small-town feel.”

Joining Sloniger for the opening of the capsule were two longtime Ballard East teachers, who are still current staff members, Jean Bruns and Lori Ostrem.

After sawing open the time capsule, Sloniger pulled out the contents one thing at a time, as the two helping teachers helped hold them up for everyone to see.

Included were the following items:

• a T-shirt — significant for when the first playground was completed, it was glued to the top and took a bit of work to get out

• a handwritten report in a protective sleeve about the history of the project

• a piece of a yellow gas line — Sloniger told the kids that this pipe was hit on the very first day of drilling at the playground and they had to evacuate the building because of it. He added that Doug Schroeder, who still works in the district and was a major contributor to the project, had to be hospitalized because of this.

• baseball cards from 1993 and a Ballard baseball cap

• comic books of the time

• two favorite paperback books of the time: “Corduroy” and “The Boxcar Children”

• A VHS tape of the movie, “Aladdin”

• A Tri-County Times newspaper of that time that reported on the 1993 floods. Sloniger told the kids that the flood of ‘93 was a 500-year flood and practically isolated the town of Cambridge by surrounding every entry way but one with water. In fact, he said, the first two weeks of school were so wet that nothing could be done outside of the school.

• Pictures of some of the students at the school

• A toy teenage mutant ninja turtle, popular in the day

• A pencil with a troll topper, a school carnival prize of that day

• A school newsletter

• A pen that was handed out to kids and teachers for the keeping of records

• Another school T-shirt, which one of the current Ballard football players slipped on over his jersey to show the kids

After going through all the interesting things inside the time capsule, it was announced that a new committee, led by Manock, fourth grade teacher Jessica Demry and parent Megan Buttz, will be working to determine what things will be put in a new time capsule that will be buried on the new playground this spring.

“The traditions of the Ballard Schools continue strong,” Manock said. “The playground committee helped get this started by planning and picking out a wonderful new playground for both Ballard East and West (schools). Jennifer Johnson (principal) led the Ballard West group, while I led the East group, along with Doug Schroeder.”

Manock continued, “If they would not have committed to this work and we would not have had the great support from local businesses, like Story County Bank and Kreg Tool, the Ballard Foundations, Ballard PTO, as well as many other businesses and community members, we would not have these wonderful playgrounds and would not have found the time capsule.”

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